Abstract

Role of women in business is on the increase from a global perspective. Significant importance is given to
women’s role in small business ventures to ensure women empowerment. However, no initiative was taken in
past research to identify regional disparities in the level of women participation in day-to-day management. The
aim of encouraging women participation in business ventures was not only to ensure success to their endeavours
but also to assure social and economic development in both rural and urban sectors. Conceptualizing the
importance of aforesaid move and the degree of its impact on women enterprises, this study attempts to identify
the regional dichotomy in the level of women participation by focusing on nine urban and six rural small
business units purposively selected from two States in India. Hypotheses were tested with primary data collected
with questionnaire administered in aforesaid regions focusing on a sample of 200 women entrepreneurs. Chi and
z tests were used and results were modelled to express regional disparity in level and nature of women
participation. This study developed a new paradigm that facilitates further research in this field.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.